Upcoming cake regatta at the rowing club

This upcoming Saturday we will have the annual cake regatta at the rowing club. The theme of the annual cake regatta is selected by the previous year's winner, and the winner has selected "muffin" as theme for 2019.

I will be baking muffin with contains apples, as apples really is in season here in September. I have the following three muffins in mind:

1. apple muffin with cinnamon and buttermilk
2. Apple muffin with oat and cinnamon
3. Apple muffin with crumble on top

I will leave the decision on what to bake in your capable hands, so leave a comment, if I should bake muffin option 1, 2 or 3. You have until Friday morning to leave a comment on this post or participate in the vote on the blog.

PINK afternoon tea 2014

Hostess's gifts

MEGA - MEGA MANY THANKs to all of my amazing girls friends, who took part this afternoon in my third pink fund-raising afternoon tea for their support, generosity and positive response to my invitation.

Together we have donated an amazing 500 DKK, which has been transferred to www.araceagainstbreastcancer.dk, as this charity is accepting any amount of money without demands to specific value compared to other charities here in Denmark, which "demand" certain specific amount of money.




The afternoon started in my new kitchen, where very single drawer was carefully examined by my good girl friends. Afterwards we moved into the dining table, which was filled with all plenty of baked goods.

It turned out to be something of afternoon tea, as two of my girls friends were telling they were moving on with new job opportunities !!! I am so excited on their behave, I wish both of you all the best with these new job positions :-)

It had been something of a challenge to bake in my new oven for the very first time !!! The baking time is quiet longer in the new oven compared to my old oven, so I have to learn to increase the oven temperature with approx 10'C or increase the baking time with 10-20 minutes.

The first eatable stuff on the menu was a Christmas flavoured scones with plenty of butter, various spices, orange peel and sucat. Wonder taste & texture :-)

The cake of the afternoon tea menu was a mixture between a brownie and a muffin in form of brownie-muffin, which has an excellent chocolate taste.

The other cake part was a Christmas cheese cake, where I had just added cherry sauce as topping on a classic cheese cake recipe.

The third cake was a tea bread with more than a touch of Christmas.

For the small sweet tooth I have made caramels with cashew nuts and sea salt and German version of "brunkager" (brown Christmas cookies).

All the many recipes will be a part of the coming Christmas Calender 2014, so this PINK afternoon tea has giving me a good boost of blog posts.

Even though I have asked my good girls friends NOT to bring any hostess gifts with them for this PINK afternoon tea, some of them came along with some home-made Christmas cookies, quince candy, crisp bread and some lovely liquorice tea - I will enjoy all these wonderful gifts :-)

Summer Scones with raspberry, rosemary and white chocolate

I have signed up for participating in Food Blogger Challenge # 3 - Summer food is focusing on three raw materials, which either should be used with the savoury or sweet kitchen. For the sweet challenge the three ingredients are fruit, herb and chocolate. A more obvious choice would have been to make panna cotta with white chocolate, fresh fruit and some lemon balm as the green dot. When I though baking a pie with white chocolate filling and topped of with fresh raspberries and again some lemon balm as the herb part.

However, with some very warm Summer weather, I did not feel like baking forever in my kitchen, so scones with the three key ingredients jump int my mind as the option !!! So went into my little kitchen garden, where I could fresh raspberries and rosemary.

In my first suggestion for a Summer Scone I used lemon balm, raspberry and white chocolate. However, I could not taste the lemon balm at all. The amount of raspberries was too high, so the scone dough was to soft and the amount of white chocolate as well to much, so the overall sweetness was too much in my opnion.

So after some rethinking I decided to use rosemary instead of together with reduction in the amount of raspberries and white chocolate. On top of this I decided to let the rosemary infuse the scone dough cold in the refrigerator for 30 minutes prior to baking.

Summer Scones: - 12 pieces

• 450 g cake flour
• ½ teaspoon rosemary - finely chopped
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1½ teaspoon baking powder
• 60 g sugar
• 125 g cold butter
• 1 egg
• 200 g milk
• 50 g white chocolate - chopped into smaller pieces
• 75 g fresh raspberries

1. Mix the flour, salt, chopped rosemary, baking powder and sugar together in a mixing bowl.
2. Cut the cold butter into small pieces.
3. Grind the butter pieces into the flour mix.
4. Whip the milk and egg together.
5. Mix milk-egg and flour-butter together without kneading it a dough.
6. Add the chocolate pieces and fresh raspberries.
7. Place the dough on a pieces of baking paper.
8. Roll the dough into a longer roll size.
9. Place the scone dough cold in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
10. Heat up the oven to 250'C
11. Cut the dough into slices of 3 cm, before placing them on a piece of baking paper
12. Bake the scone at 250'C for 10-15 minutes in the upper part of the oven.

Sommer Scones med hindbær, hvid chokolade og rosmarin

Jeg har tilmeldt mig Madbloggerudfordringen # 3 - sommermad, hvor udfordringen er skulle anvende 3 udvalgte råvarer i enten det salte eller det søde køkken. Jeg valgte den søde version, idet jeg har en sød tand. De 3 råvarer er frugt, krydderurter og chokolade. Et oplagt valg ville have været at lave panna cotta med hvid chokolade, frisk frugt og noget citronmelisse som den grønne prik over i´et. Jeg overvejede ligeledes en tærte med fyldning af hvid chokolade fyldning og dekoreret med friske hindbær og igen noget citronmelisse som krydderurt delen.

Men det suveræne dejlige varme sommervejr sat en stop for, idet jeg havde lyst til at bage i længere tid i mit køkken, så i stedte for besluttede jeg for at lave scones med følgende tre råvarer: hindbær, hvid chokolade og rosmarin. Både hindbærrene og rosmarin kunne jeg endda høstede i min lille have.

I mit første forslag til en Sommer Scone brugte jeg citronmelisse, hindbær og hvid chokolade. Men jeg kunne ikke smage citronmelisse overhovedet. Desuden var mængden af ​​hindbæralt for høj, så scones-dejen blev for blød. Og samtidig var mængden af ​​hvid chokolade ligeledes for stor, så sconene blev for søde selv for mig med min søde tand.

Så derfor besluttede jeg mig for at anvende rosmarin i stedet for samtidig med en reduktion i mængden ad både hindbær og hvid chokolade. Oven i dette besluttede jeg at lade rosmarin afgive mere smag til scones dejen ved at opbevare dejen koldt i køleskabet i 30 minutter før selve bagningen.

Hindbær og hvid chokolade er en klassiker i det søde køkken, hvor hindbærrene friskhed passer som hånd i en handske til sødmen fra den hvide chokolade. Rosmarin giver lige det extra twist til hele smagsoplevelsen.

Sommer Scones med hindbær, hvid chokolade og rosmarin: - 12 stykker

• 450 g kage mel
• ½ tsk rosmarin - finthakket
• ½ tsk salt
• 1 ½ tsk bagepulver
• 60 g sukker
• 125 g koldt smør
• 1 æg
• 200 g mælk
• 50 g hvid chokolade - hakket i mindre stykker
• 75 g friske hindbær

1. Bland mel, salt, rosmarin, bagepulver og sukker sammen i en skål.
2. Skær koldt smør i små stykker.
3. Smuldre smørret med mel blandingen.
4. Pisk mælk og æg sammen.
5. Bland mælk-æg og mel-smør-blandingen uden at ælte dejen for meget sammmen.
6. Tilsæt chokolade stykker og friske hindbær.
7. Læg dejen på et stykker bagepapir.
8. Rul dejen til en længere rulle.
9. Placer scones-dejen koldt i køleskabet i 30 minutter.
10. Varm ovnen op til 250'C.
11. Skær dejen i skiver af 3 cm, før du placerer dem på et stykke bagepapir.
12. Bage scones ved 250'C i 10-15 minutter i den øverste del af ovnen.

And the winners are ....

the two readers, who were so kind to leave a comment each on the birthday give away meaning I do not have to draw lots, as there is liquorice gift to each commentators.

Jeanett17 November 2013 13:43

Dear Kirsten, I enjoy your blog very much, because you combine personel experience of various recipies with your life. Thank you :-)

Erbse22 November 2013 21:04

Kære Kirsten, altid dejligt at se dine seneste køkken gadgets, indkøb fra din shopping i ind og udland, å inspriation til nye retter o.m.m Ser frem til mange flere input og oplevelser fra din side. Kærligst, Karin

So Jeanett, please share your address by mail: kitchenofkiki@email.dk, so I can send the liquorice gift to you.

Erbse: I would your location, so the liquorice gift will be hand delivered to you :-)

Happy birthday to Kitchen of Kiki

Birthday cake in form of Danish lagkage

Happy birthday to my little blog !!!! 

Today my blog about activities in my little kitchen, life in my "park" and with guest appearance of the local star Hannibal the Cat becomes 3 years old :-)

It is incretiable how fast time is running ! When I wrote my very first blog post, I was having no idea, where it would take me and perhaps you readers on the other side of the screen. The main driver for me is to relax my mind (so no mindfulness here !!!) as well as having fun being busy in my kitchen creating. Sometimes even being slight maniac baking away for an afternoon tea for my good friends.

Within the last two months I have started implementing two new ideas, which I am planning to make a regular part of the virtual life of my blog.
The first thing is a welcome greeting to the "new" calendar month with focus on interesting food of that particular month.
The second thing is, that a real ice cream machine was found a place in my little kitchen, so I am planning to make ice cream every month, a process which will involve you upfront in the selection process in form of an ice cream election. In September you selected vanilla ice cream, so in October I made two different vanilla ice cream in form of home-made vanilla ice cream a la "Country Cook´s Kitchen" and ultra indulgent vanilla ice cream "artisan style". However, here in November I have already decided, which type of ice cream I would like to create, so here you have no saying at all.

Again I have decided to celebrate this third blog birthday with a give-away competition :-)
Your contribution is to leave a comment, either what you really like about this blog and/or where you could see room for improvement/development. You should also state in your comment, if you have a preference for Christmas liquorice or liquorice marzipan, as I have two small gifts for you to choose from. I will at the end of this month draw two lucky winners among your comments.
You can leave your comment in either Danish or English depending on your preferred language.

Last year I received one comment, so if this trend continues, you have can a very good chance of actually winning somethings based on leaving a comment to this post :-)

The winner will be selected at random from all comments received full-filling the above mentioned requirements. The winners will be notified within 1 week after the closing date. The price is as stated, so no cash alternatives are available. This give-away is open to EU + Nordic countries entrants only.

The closing of this blog birthday give-away is Sunday 24 November 2013 at 20.00 (CTE time zone).

Hannibal the Cat laying on the kitchen floor

And as usual yet another update on my KPIs for the blog, which look like this (In my professional life colleagues and managers are discussing Key Performance Indicators on a regular basis):

Review day: 13 November 2013 - 3 year birthday
Start day - first posting: 13 November 2010
Development on "Hjemmebagt": 73 recipes - 32 accomplished = 41 recipes to bake
Amount of cooking books in my kitchen: 58 books
Page views: 94847
Publish posts: 711 incl. this
Followers: 15
Blogs followed: 15
Top blog posts during these three years:

1. TUC cake
2. Dinner at"Mad hos Mads, Horsens
3. Tea shopping at Kusmi in Paris
4. Christmas Calendar Door 9/2011 - Christmas Aquavita
5. Meeting some Danish food bloggers in REAL life
6. Christmas Calendar Door 7/2011 - Baked marzipan confect
7. Dinner at Belle Epoque, Nykøbing Mors
8. Paleo (stone-age diet) chocolade cake
9. The ultimate strawberry cake - Strawberry cake version 5.0
10. Lønnestræde Kir Royal

So there has been some movements, but two out the top 3 blog posts seems to be impossible to change, as they remain the same posts for the last 2 years (the TUC cake and shopping for Kusmi Tea in Paris). However, three blog posts from 2013 have been popular enough among your readers to make into the overall Top 10 list in form of "Paleo (Stone-age diet) chocolate", which made into the overall Top 10 (being a number 8) within a time frame of 1 week, eating at Belle Epoque and off casue the ultimate "The ultimate strawberry cake - Strawberry cake version 5.0", a cake which took me two years to fine-tune to perfection.

So if I should have a description of you as blog reader of "Kitchen of Kiki" based on the overall top 10 list  I would say that:

• you like me has a "sweet tooth" towards cakes (3 posts are cake recipes)
• you like to drink tea and you are a keen fan of Kusmi tea (like I am)
• you like to make home-made things for Christmas (2 posts)
• you like to eat at restaurants (2 posts)
• you are champagne lady (like I am)
• and finally you like to meet new people with similar interest (1 post)

Among the top 10 post written within the last year, since the blog turned 2 years old you will find:

1. Dinner at Belle Epoque, Nykøbing Mors
2. Paleo (stone-age diet) chocolade cake
3. The ultimate strawberry cake - Strawberry cake version 5.0 - Tea Time Treat
4. Stone age (Paleo) bread 
5. Bergamot-orange jam for Tea Time Treat 
6. Rugkiks - rye bisquits with cumin (from Hjemmebagt) 
7. Rhubarb cordial -easy to make
8. Skovtursmuffin - picnic muffin for Tea Time Treat 
9. Curry with chicken, edam beans and carrots
10. Tartes aux pommes for Tea Time Treat  & Eating yogurt in New York  

So describing your interest during the last year as blog reader, I would say:

• you have maintained your "sweet tooth" towards cakes (3 posts are cake recipes)
• you are quiet fond off the virtual monthly Tea Time Treat (4 posts have been a part of this specific blogging event)
• you like to eat "Stone-age" food (2 posts), which I find interesting to try out, even though I do not follow this diet regime
• you maintained your desire for dinning at restaurants (2 posts)
• you like home-made jam, home-made biscuits and a good home-made curry (1 post each)

Is it quiet interesting to see, how the majority of the most popular blog posts are related to cake baking/creation. Also my participation in the amazing blog event Tea Time Treats has a huge influence on the viewing of various blog posts, which suddenly turns into be extremely popular, as four of the top 10 posts have been a part of this specific virtual event.

Page view per country:

• Australia: 1%
• Canada: 1%
• France: 1%
• Norway: 1%
• Portugal: 2%
• Germany: 4%
• UK: 4%
• Russia: 6%
• USA: 19%
• Other countries: 27%
• Denmark: 34%

I have also noticed, that I have more and more readers coming from out-side Denmark, where USA accounts for this growth in non-Danish readers together with Russia, Germany and UK. I find it amazing, that I have readers around the world, which perhaps are grabbing some inspiration from my little kitchen. You are more than welcome inside for a virtual cup of tea :-) 

PINK fund raising afternoon tea 2013

PINK afternoon tea 2013

MEGA - MEGA MANY THANKs to all of my amazing girls friends, who took part this afternoon in my second pink fund raising afternoon tea for their support, generosity and positive response to my invitation.

Together we collected 850 DKK, which has been transferred to www.araceagainstbreastcancer.dk, as this charity is accepting any amount of money without demands to specific value compared to other charities here in Denmark, which "demand" certain specific amount of money.

We starter the afternoon with a glass of bobbles, mixing sparkling rose wine with mixed together with ½ teaspoon of blackberry cognac. I did not dare to add more of this cognac in order "to control" the overall alcohol taste.

Rye bread with tuna salad

The first two eatable things were slices of rye bread with fennel seeds either with tuna salad or the great French combination of French soft goat cheese and French lavender jam (Fleurs de Lavande). The last option is so a great taste combination, which you really should try out in your kitchen !!!

French combo: goat cheese with lavender jam

Afterwards we moved towards the scone part of the menu. This time I add found a recipe on scones rose lemonade on a blog out here in blog country. I served these scones with the usual whipped dairy cream and another flower jam = rose jam.

Pie with caramel and nu

So now we were "warmed up" on the calorie part, ready to take on the cake part of this afternoon tea. The first cake was not a cake, but a muffin made with pear, hazel nuts and plenty of butter. The second cake was a cake in form small pies with caramel filling and nuts (the caramel was made with both dairy whipping cream and butter and the nuts was a mixture of four different nuts: hazel nuts, walnuts, almonds and pecans). The third cake was perhaps not a real cake, but more of a cookie type in form of  muscovado biscotti.

Panna cotta with rhubarb compote

I do not know about you, if you are feeling filled up by now ? My guests still had to taste the dessert part of this afternoon tea menu. The first dessert was a panna cotta with rhubarb compote. In order to "lower" the calorie content of this panna cotta, I had made it from ½ dairy whipping cream and ½ skimmed milk, instead of "only" dairy whipping cream.

Uuuhmm, the combination with rhubarb compote was bringing in some wonderful bringing freshness into this creamy sweet dessert base.

The other part of the dessert part was the "battle" between these vanilla ice creams: home-made vanilla ice cream a la "A Country Cooks Kitchen" versus ultra indulgent vanilla ice cream "artisan style".

In this vanilla ice cream election the preference between all the people around the tea table was in favour of the home-made vanilla ice cream a la "A Country Cook´s Kitchen", as it had a great vanilla flavour and a faster cleaning in the mouth. The other ice cream "artisan style" was ropy in texture.

As a finishing touch I served a fruit selection, so we could get some fibre to go with all the calories !!!

Everyone was filled up more than 100% in the stomach after the afternoon tea, and I as usual skipped my evening meal !!!!

I will as usual be sharing all the various recipes in the upcoming days/weeks, so look around on a regular basis, if you are looking for a specific recipes. Or leave me a comment, if you have a special interest, which you can not wait to make yourselve in your own kitchen, as I could re-adjust on the publishing order.

Preparations for PINK afternoon tea tomorrow

The invitation to my girl friends for the PINK afternoon tea

Based on last year´s great success among my good girl friends I decided to repeat the PINK afternoon tea, where I turn a bit maniac in my little kitchen baking and creating various eatable things, which is being served together with a glass of bubbles and plenty of freshly brewed coffee and tea.

As some of you know, I involved my work colleagues in a PINK muffin fund raising recently, so now it is my girls friends being involved in similar activity. My girl friends have been invited on the "condition", that they bring money, which will be donated to "A race against breast cancer".

Today I am busy for preparing for tomorrow´s PINK afternoon tea, so I am only sharing the invitation with you. I will post photos from the actually tea table tomorrow evening with, so you can see, that we have been enjoying.

I have been baking muscovado biscotti, rye bread with fennel seeds, small pies with caramel layer and various nuts, muffins with hazel nuts and pear and right here now I am making panna cotta, which will be served with rhubarb compote.

Tomorrow I "only" need to bake scones, make two types of rye bread sandwich, clear the entire kitchen living room after today's maniac activities and lay the tea table !!!

See you tomorrow :-)

Sale of muffin as "PINK" fund raising at work

PINK flower bouquet

I have some amazing work colleagues, which yet again participated in a new muffin fund raising event for the fight against breast cancer as well as their positive response to this idea of mine. So a huge thank you to all of you for your support :-) as well as your nice comments on my PINK attire. I was addressed as "lady in pink" by several colleagues yesterday at work.

In October month there is a lot focus here in Denmark (like many other places in world) on breast cancer as well as collecting money to support both research in this sickness as well as support to women living with it.


As my colleagues showed great support at last year´s pink muffin sale, I decided to involve them again. It is becoming more and more easy to step out my own comfort zone "demanding" money from them prior to eat my muffins. This year I had baked muffins with Danish apples and cinnamon.

As usual I leave it to each of my work colleagues to make up their own mind on the amount of money, they like to donate. And if they for suggestion, I suggest 10 DKK as starting point. I received donations from 15 work colleagues, which in total donated 344 DKK, which equals a price on 22.93 DKK for each muffin, which is almost 7 DKK more compared to the last year´s fund raising, where a muffin selling price was 16.05 DKK. As any amount of money (not fixed value) is accepted by www.araceagainstbreastcancer.dk, they are receiving the collected money.

Ice cream election here in September 2013

Ice cream election for September 2013

Your are THE ONE (well together with the other blog readers), which is taking THE decision, which should be the very first ice cream, I should make on my Nemox ice cream machine.

I am giving you three different ice creams to vote among:

• the classic ice cream - the most selling ice cream flavour around the world - vanilla ice cream
• liquorice ice cream with liquorice ripple - new classic Nordic flavour within any food item
• cherry ice cream a la Klidmoster

It seems like it will be a close race between liquorice and cherry, so every single vote is counting !

The election will be on-going on my blog until Wednesday 25 September. You can find the voting part in the side panel to the right at the top. So grab the opportunity to influence, which ice cream I should make as the very first ice cream :-)

Blog birthday - Kitchen of Kiki turns 2 years :-)

Happy birthday to my little blog !!!! 

Hip - hip - hurrah - today my blog becomes 2 years.
It has been two good years of good relaxation for my mind and I sharing life from my kitchen as well as from my tiny garden park with you out here in cyber space.

Again I have decided to celebrate this second blog birthday with a give-away competition :-)
Your contribution is to leave a comment, what you really like about this blog and where you could see room for improvement/development. You should also state in your comment, if you have a preference for vanilla pods or Christmas tea, as I have two small gifts for you to choose from. I will at the end of this give-away competition draw two lucky winners among your comments.

The winner will be selected at random from all comments received full-filling the above mentioned requirements. The winners will be notified within 1 week after the closing date. The price is as stated, so no cash alternatives are available. This give-away is open to EU + Nordic countries entrants only.

The closing of this blog birthday give-away is Sunday 25 November 2012 at 20.00 (CTE time zone).

Hannibal the Cat laying on the kitchen floor

And as usual yet another update on my KPIs for the blog, which look like this (In my professional life colleagues and managers are discussing Key Performance Indicators on a regular basis):

Review day: 13 November 2011 - 2 year birthday
Start day - first posting: 13 November 2010
Development on "Hjemmebagt": 73 recipes - 19 accomplished = 54 recipes to bake
Amount of cooking books in my kitchen: 53 books
Page views: 43436
Publish posts: 500 incl. this
Followers: 12
Blogs followed: 18
Top 5 of published posts:

1. TUC cake
2. Meeting some Danish food bloggers in REAL LIFE over a great meal
3. Tea shopping at Kusmi in Paris
4. "Apple fish" a la La Tascha
5. New mile stone 200 blog postings
6. Strawberry cake version 3.0
7. Kitchen equipment 13 - Electrical kettle
8. Mini quiche lorraine
9. Baked marzipan confect
10. Round lemon cake from "Te og kager året rundt"

Is it quiet interesting to see, how the majority of the most popular blog posts are related to cake baking/creation.
Also it is very interesting to see, how big an influence my participation in various blog event like Tea Time Treats and  Matbloggsentralen´s utfordringer can have on the viewing of various blog posts, which suddenly turns into be extremely popular, as four of the top 10 posts have been a part of those virtual events.

However, a look into the recipe overview for this blog also indicated, that the important thing in my kitchen is related to the sweet side of life in form of dessert, fruit alcohols, cocktails and drinks, baking various things, jam and Christmas celebration. You could easily end up with the image, that I can not cooking anything at all,   but this is not the case, but I think the above mentioned thing are more interesting to both make and share.

Since last year I have actually meet some Danish food bloggers in real life at an amazing dinner, doing that gave me so much energy, that I feel much better about participating in such an event again. Doing it really got me of my comfort zone, which I "survived" in grant style ready for an new challenge.

Page view per country:

• Australia: 1%
• Canada: 1%
• France: 1%
• Norway: 1%
• UK: 4%
• Germany: 4%
• Russia: 4%
• Portugal: 5%
• US: 17%
• Denmark: 62%

I have also noticed, that I have more and more readers coming from out-side Denmark, where USA accounts for this growth in non-Danish readers together with Portugal, Russia, Germany and UK. I would like to extend a very warm welcome to all my visitors outside Denmark. Thank you for dropping by in my little kitchen. And I hope to see you soon here in my kitchen.

PINK fund raising afternoon tea

PINK afternoon tea table is ready for the guests

MEGA - MEGA MANY THANKs to all of my amazing girls friends, who took part in this pink fund raising afternoon tea for their generosity and positive response to my invitation.

Together we collected 600 DKK, which has been transferred to www.araceagainstbreastcancer.dk, as this charity is accepting any amount of money without demands to specific value.

The afternoon started with a glass of bobbles in form of my interpretation of Kir Royal, mixing sparkling wine with blackcurrant rum.

Welcome - Lønnestræde Kir Royal

As small appetisers I used mini toast bread. One option being the traditional egg salad and the second option having a more French character of French soft goat cheese and French lavender jam (Fleurs de Lavande).

Mini toast with French goat cheese and French lavender jam

Mini toast with traditional egg salad

Next point on the afternoon tea agenda was apple-walnut scones served together with whipped dairy whipping cream and blackberry jam with lemon and balcamico. These scones could have needed some more butter, as they were a bit to the dry side.

Apple-walnut scones with whipped cream and blackberry jam

The cake part of the menu consisted of three different cakes.

The first cake being raspberry cake using the bottom part of the strawberry cake version 3.0, a too, too thin vanilla cake cream found in the bread book "Hjemmebagt" and freshly picked Autumn raspberries from the garden of my very good friends in Horsens.

Raspberry cake with bleeding vanilla cream

The second cake being a "mini" cheese cake with liquorice and lemon overloaded with enormous amount of calories.

Liquorice-lemon cheese cake

The third cake being Madeleines

Madeleines

As a finishing touch I served a fruit selection, where I forgot to take a picture.

Everyone was filled up more than 100% in the stomach after the afternoon tea, I had to skip the evening meal !!!!

Thank you for your support for PINK afternoon tea

Preparing for PINK fund raising afternoon tea tomorrow

The invitation to my girl friends for the PINK afternoon tea

Tomorrow´s  PINK outfit

Today I am busy for preparing for tomorrow´s PINK afternoon tea, so I am just sharing some pictures with you of these preparations.

As some of you know, I involved my work colleagues in a PINK muffin fund raising recently, so now it is my girls friends being involved in similar activity.
After the good response from my work colleagues, I feel ready for yet another step out of my comfort zone in form inviting people to afternoon tea, where they would have to bring money instead of a more normal hostess gift. Again the donated money will be forwarded to "A race against breast cancer".

The motivating factor for making my own fund raising events is, that my grand mother and her sister both dead of breast cancer.

PINK being the colour of the afternoon tea

Please vote on my apple contribution at Matbloggsentralen

My apple harvest of 2012 - the BEST harvest ever from my garden

For the first time ever in the "life" of my blog, I would like to ask you to vote on one of my two contribution to the theme apple (EPLER in Norwegian) on the Norwegian blog collection Matbloggsentralen.

There is posted a total of 108 apple posts, and I have two contribution in form of the cake called "Æbel fisk" (Apple Fish) post number 28 and Paradisæbel Snaps (Crab apple aquavit) as post number 29. Looking at amount of post views on these two posts, if seems like the Apple Fish being the most popular, so I would be grateful for your vote on Apple Fish - you use this link Matbloggsentralen ukens utfordring epler. You can vote until Sunday 21 October 2012 at 24.00 CET.

I have an option winning a apron, if get the most votes. However, for me it is not the apron being the goal. The goal for me is to get a few votes on one of my blog posting.

Now you have three options:

1. do what you normal would do - read this post and click away to something else.
2. write a comment, why you dis-like bloggers begging for votes in blog competition.
3. bring some extra happiness into my life by giving me a mouse click voting on one of my blog posts :-)

Have a nice week-end :-)

"Pink" muffin fund raising at work

Muffin fund raising uniform

First of all a BIG thank to all of my fantastic work colleagues, who participated in this muffin fund raising event for the fight against breast cancer :-) as well as their positive response to this idea of mine.

In October month there is a lot focus here in Denmark (like many other places in world) on breast cancer as well as collecting money to support both research in this sickness as well as support to women living with it.

So besides from buying the yearly T-shirt, I took the decision of involving my work colleagues as well in form of a PINK muffin fund raising at the afternoon coffee based their previous great support to such a crazy idea of mine. And this time I felt much better making such a fund raising selling home-made blackberry muffin, as I once before tried to step out of my comfort zone "demanding" money for eating my muffins.

I looked into there the collected money could be donated. One option would be "Støt brysterne", but here the amount of money need to fit with 50 DKK - 100 DKK - 150 DKK etc, which would be tricky in my case, as I would not "demand" 25 or 50 DKK per muffin. Luckily enough I found, that any amount of money would be accepted by www.araceagainstbreastcancer.dk, so therefore they will received the collected money.

This time I did not state a starting donation, but I left to each participants to make their price evaluation. 17 of my work colleagues turned up donating a total of 273 DKK, which equals a price on 16.05 DKK for each muffin, which is almost 5 DKK more compared to the last fund raising, where a muffin selling price was 11.38 DKK. 

As an extra little something, two colleague had their name drawn out in a muffin donation "lottery". One person got a glass blackberry jam with lemon and balcamico and the other person got a small bottle of blackcurrant rum.

Meeting some Danish food-bloggers in REAL LIFE over a great meal

Moules marinières - mussels

Some time ago I participated in a give-away hosted by the inspiring Danish food-blogger Klidmoster, who celebrate 1000 fans on her facebook page. The winner could win a dinner together with Klidmoster.
When very recently Klidmoster on behave of the restaurant owner of Klassisk 65 invited all the participants in the give-away competition to meet up for mussels and cava at Klassisk 65.

Escargots - snails in butter and garlic

Yes, I had participated in the original give-away and I went back to read my original comment to Klidmoster: "Hej Malou ! Congratulation with this mile stone of yours. It could great to meet you in real life besides from your presence here in virtual life. Many kitchen greeting Kirsten".

Wednesday evenings I am normally busy with "water ballet lesson", but this is weekly occasion, whereas being able to meet Klidmoster in "real life" would be an rare occasion, so I decided to say "yes, please" to the kind invitation. Even it meant eating mussels, which is not on my top 5 of seafood dishes, however, cava is just the treat for a champagne girl like me.

Tatar of beef tenderloin and raw egg yolk

Signing up for this event felt quiet out of my comfort zone, as I knew no one at all for this upcoming event. However, I felt obliged to sign up looking at my comment to Klidmoster.

Approaching the restaurant Wednesday evening I saw a huge group of people standing outside, waiting for the door to open and let all the fans of Klidmoster in-side to be wined and dined.

Tatar and fresh salad

I found a small table for the evening, where there was room for four persons, which allows for a good conservation between everyone around the table. Around the table I meet Anne from Annes Køkken, Britt from Den Hvide Tallerken and Rikke from Camp Chaos. Thank you to all three of you for some great company :-)

Blogging, this specific invitation, our reason for blogging and the fantastic meal almost sparked the talk around the table as well as all the camera phone, as we kept taking pictures of the food. It is going to be interesting, which of us four bloggers, who will be posting the first post on this event ?


Søren and his crew from Klassisk 65 kept serving mussels and wine for us, and suddenly new un-expected dishes turned up on the table, in form of snails, tatar and we ended the meal with a small cheese selection. Wauw - what a surprise for all of us :-)

Plateau de Fromages

It was actually the very time for me eating tatar, now I have tried it, but I will not freely order tatar on my own another time. The thought about raw meat and unknown bacteria is main reason for not doing this, so you may call me sensitive.

Going home from the event, I felt great and such energy having moved myself out off my own comfort zone and meeting up for this event with all these unknown people.

One thing is to sign up for conference at work, where you also know no one, but here you come together with your job/profession as "backing group".

In total 28 persons turned up for this fantastic event full of plenty talk, perfect atmosphere, great food and nice free-flowing wine. So a BIG thank you to both Søren and Klidmoster for this invitation :-)
I am feeling much more comfortable for turning up at another event, where you can meet food-bloggers in "real life".

The cheese selection